Magicka Collection

One of PC gaming's finest co-op experiences is coming to a rectangular productivity-enhancing device near you. How many times will you "accidentally" kill your friends in Magicka: Wizards of the Square Tablet?

Developed by Ludosity, the folks behind the lovely Bob Came in Pieces, Wizards of the Square Tablet is a whole new adventure in the Magicka universe, capturing all the hallmark features of the series and trapping them in a flat rectangle of power. It's got four-player online co-op. It's got the elemental-combination spell system. It's got plenty of accidental murder. Throw in exclusive items for the iPad and Android versions, cross-platform play and the ability to touch yourself for hours (well, a digital representation of yourself... or whatever, just don't tell me), and you've got a game that most certainly is this one.

I mean, I can't say it'll be amazing, I've not played it yet. I can be excited though, so imagine meet hooting and hopping in my chair.

Magicka: Wizards of the Square Tablet is coming. They didn't specify, so I can't say soon. Before you die, surely. Hopefully.

In today's magically delicious episode of Speak Up on Kotaku, commenter Chris P. Bacon claims that while not one video game has portrayed magic perfectly, several have come close. He should know. He is a wizard.

I've always been a fan of magic users in games. A magician who always has a bag of tricks for any situation and an ace in the sleeve should all else fail. A sorcerer who can reshape reality with unthinkable powers. But, to this date, I've never seen a magic system in a videogame without a few glaring flaws.

Why is it that a warrior or rogue can jog an unlimited distance then swing a weapon for minutes on end while never breaking a sweat or slowing down even slightly, yet wizards often find themselves out of magic and just standing there with little to do. Muscles never tire, and yet magic energy from some unknown impossible source often does.

Now, of course magic needs its limitations, otherwise there would be no reason not to blast the strongest spell all day over and over again. A cooldown system is a fine enough choice, yet it becomes very robotic, going through a consistent rotation of the same spells thoughtlessly just about everywhere.

Then, there's the D&D style, as used in, for example, Baldur's Gate 2 wherein you think of what spells you'll want tomorrow within limited slots then fall asleep until you can use them 8 hours later. It's rather clunky, yet it does cause you to go through everything in your spellbook according to the direness of the situation. It does seem rather silly that a whole party has to wait 8 hours for the wizard to take a nap before he casts one little remove curse spell. Or resurrecting a dead friend first thing in the morning before you brush your teeth.

I should add here that I do love the game Magicka. Big spells took a little time to type in as quickly as you could, practice and premeditation definitely helped, walking was slow when ready to cast so you can't instantly disintegrate enemies on sight, you never just run out of steam and stand there like a dope, and there was all sorts of interesting combinations to try, always a perfect tool for the job. The only drawback is that this system required a very particular control scheme, one that not every game will necessarily facilitate. Also, no one I know owned the game so I just played it single player about a dozen times over and over.

Another honorable mention should go to Two Worlds 2, getting the spell cards and elemental levels was a pain and it was still a mana bar system but it did allow creativity, fun experimenting, and a certain uniqueness between every mage who didn't go with a cookie cutter I-read-it-off-the-internet model.

I thought of a method that may be interesting to try which combines the D&D model and the basic mana bar. You can preselect a limited number of spells which cast instantly but at variable mana costs. But you can also cast from your entire spellbook at variable casting times which leaves you open and mostly stationary. This way you can choose between a quick burst of instant offensive magic or a collection of defensive spells to be used quickly, but non-clutch needs such as long-term damage per second and basic over-time healing can be cast without eventually getting tired and watching someone swing a 6 foot long greatsword for the rest of the fight without as much as needing to sit down in a chair to catch his breath.

What are some other games systems or your thoughts on how magic should best be handled?

About Speak Up on Kotaku: Our readers have a lot to say, and sometimes what they have to say has nothing to do with the stories we run. That's why we have a forum on Kotaku called Speak Up. That's the place to post anecdotes, photos, game tips and hints, and anything you want to share with Kotaku at large. Every weekday we'll pull one of the best Speak Up posts we can find and highlight it here.

PC specialists Paradox unveiled three new games at GDC yesterday. One is The Showdown Effect, which if you can make it past the intro in the trailer above unfurls into something that looks like Worms and Quake III had a tiny, split-screen baby.

The basic premise is recreating action movie insanity. Up to eight players will have everything from guns to bigger guns to swords to lightsabers at their disposal.

If the focus on multiplayer mayhem on a PC sounds familiar, it's being developed by Arrowhead, the guys behind 2011's Magicka. The Showdown Effect will be out on PC and Mac in Q3 this year.

Goodbye, Vietnam. Paradox Interactive's acclaimed and comical multiplayer wizard computer game will be getting an expansion called The Stars Are Left. It will pit up to four players against monsters in "a horror-mystery inspired byt he Cthullhu Mythos." So says the PC-gaming champions at Paradox. They say that the expansion, made by the Magicka madmen at Aarowhead, will be out this winter.

Sold? They say the game will include the following features. Note the final bullet point from Paradox's press release for the expansion:

An all-new adventure, several levels long, allowing players to get lost in space and time
• 2 new challenge maps
• 2 new robes
• 2 new bosses
• 5 new achievements
• 7 new enemies
• Considerably more than 2 new items and Magicks
• Also, we make fun of Minecraft this time

The first crazy Magicka expansion brought the sorcery game to Vietnam. This isn't as nuts, but, well, there's still hope.

There's a new piece of downloadable content for PC co-op shooter (spellcaster?) Magicka called the "Gamer Bundle". Normally I don't look twice at a pack offering mere player skins, but these are no mere player skins.

The three new robes for your wizards are heavily inspired by three of the best PC games ever made. One gives a headcrab and crowbar from Half-Life. Another decks them out like a World of Warcraft character. And the third, and most awesome of the lot, dresses a little wizard up like a Day of the Tentacle cosplayer.

The all wizard, all the time PC game Magicka got its promised dose of all-new player-versus-player combat this week, an event that demanded this trailer that demands your attention for its smart use of absolutely no gameplay whatsoever.

Up until now, Magicka has been a pretty friendly game, but that's all about to change. On June 21, everybody dies when player-versus-player comes to town.

PVP comes to Magicka by way of a free update on June 21, with Arena and Training Ground maps for everyone that's ever spent money on a copy of Arrowhead Game Studios' game. Those wishing to give Arrowhead more money can also purchase the Final Frontier Map Pack upon the launch of PVP, which adds the Vulcanus Arena, Frozen Lake, and Watch Tower maps to the party.

Magicka's PVP comes in three delicious flavors:

Classic Deathmatch: Instead of accidentally zapping your companions, you kill them on purpose! It's every wizard for himself as up to four physically inept beings duke it out in a one mage takes all battle.

Brawl mode: In Brawl, each player/team only has a set number of lives, and the last ma…wizard standing wins. Just make sure your "friends" don't squander those precious lives.

Kreitor mode: A fiendish new mode named after a clever Magicka fan who modded the game, the round based Kreitor mode unlocks Magicks at special intervals during the match, forcing players to come up with new strategies as new spells become available.

Fire-scarred battlegrounds covered with the bodies of dead wizards? Sounds like a party to me.

When you're done bathing in the blood of your enemies in Arrowhead Game Studios' PC RPG Magicka, towel off and slip on one of these lovely official bathrobes, now available for preorder at $85 a pop, as seen on GameGavel.

In Magicka, you don't just shoot fire or ice at things. You can combine them with electricity then shoot everything on the screen. Including your friends. And yourself.

It's the surprise PC hit of the year (so far, anyway!), and while it's had a litany of technical problems, it's also a lot of fun. If you've heard people talking about it but haven't yet seen what all the fuss is about, here's a few minutes of me killing things before setting myself on fire and dying.

Besides the carnage — which works best if you're playing with up to three friends co-operatively, as spells (especially beam weapons!) can be combined — Magicka also has a strong slant towards humour, being a parody of not just Norse mythology, but many fantasy games, genres and properties as well.

Also, apologies for the audio at the end, the EXPLOSIONS and DEATH RAYS start to drown out my voice. Not that you need my voice. You're here for the magic, not the token Australian.

Magicka was developed by Sweden's Arrowhead Game Studios, is published by Paradox, and was released on Steam on January 25. It sells for $10.